Network Manager doesnt pick up other signals

[dellthinker]

Hi all. I just did yet another fresh install of Debian lenny using the ipw2200.fw for network installation. And im _almost_ satisfied except that i cant see any other SSID's nor my own for that matter. Everything as far as the device seems to be working.

iwconfig shows up nicely, ifconfig shows both eth0 and eth1

Sample:

Inferno:~# ifconfig
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:16:41:13:3e:f9  
          UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
          Interrupt:16 

eth1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:16:6f:25:88:01  
          inet addr:10.23.2.3  Bcast:10.23.2.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::216:6fff:fe25:8801/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:4236 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:3430 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:4297964 (4.0 MiB)  TX bytes:464266 (453.3 KiB)
          Interrupt:21 Memory:a8401000-a8401fff

And if i did iwconfig....

Inferno:~# iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"Wireless_Network"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.437 GHz  Access Point: 00:18:39:DB:58:BE   
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power=20 dBm   Sensitivity=8/0  
          Retry limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=84/100  Signal level=-46 dBm  Noise level=-89 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

So whats the problem??


I would just like network manager to work the way its supposed to. Any suggestions, thanx in advance!

[waterhead]

Check to see if it has wireless enabled. Right-click on the NetworkManager icon in the taskbar, next to the Date/Time. Make sure that Enable Wireless has a check in the box next to it.

[dellthinker]

Heya, waterhead. No i dont see Enable box for wireless. Just for networking. Could that mean something needs to be installed?

[waterhead]

I don't know how Debian does things, but this seems like a clue to what is wrong.

Is there a configuration where you can tell it to use NetworkManager for the wireless? If not a GUI, maybe a config file. I read that /etc/network/interfaces controls the network card. If the wireless is listed, comment it out and restart NM or reboot. See if that helps.

[dellthinker]

Yes, you had the right idea as had i. Apparently that file doesnt like the interface. Why i dont know. But i edited /etc/network/interfaces and commented out my wireless interfaces name.

Sample:

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
#allow-hotplug eth1
#iface eth1 inet dhcp
 # wireless-* options are implemented by the wireless-tools package
wireless-mode managed
wireless-essid any

Then reset Network Manager

/etc/init.d/networking stop
/etc/init.d/networking start

But that still did nothing. So i took your advice from the beginning and right clicked the network manager applet, but wireless still wasnt there. So for kicks i unchecked Wired Network and re-checked it. For some reason the wireless network one showed up. Maybe it had something to do what what i've done in /etc/network/interfaces or not. All i know is im glad im able to use it again.